


i am the sea and nobody owns me

by starsinourblood (Ymile)



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aquariums, F/M, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 01:19:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14884898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ymile/pseuds/starsinourblood
Summary: Rey swam out of her cave and floated near him, her hands pressed against the glass. Most humans stared at her tail or her jewelry, avoiding her bare chest that she refused to keep bound. He looked at her eyes and pressed his hands against the glass to mirror her, “Your eyes never changed, nor did your tail, why is that?”The mermaid tilted her head at him, her hair moving slowly while her tail lazily flicked around. He had avoided coming here, knowing that seeing her would make him impatient. And he did, Ben wanted to smash the glass and cradle her in his arms. Other mermaids kept compelling humans to help them escape, but this one never did, the one called Rey.





	i am the sea and nobody owns me

Her hair had been blue once. As blue as the sky above her, her skin decorated in sparking bits of jewelry, her nails crusted in sea glass.

 

Now her nails were dull, her skin bare, and her hair had turned an uninspired brown. The water of her tank wasn’t fresh like the sea, the bottom of it covered in rough rocks, and a wall painted with a fake ocean. Rey had pounded at it for days, the glass falling from her nails.

 

Her tail at the very least, remained a seaweed green.

 

The moon didn’t reach the water of the tank, she had no currents and no way to know when the moon was full. The earthbound humans clearly knew nothing of her species, it showed in the dulling of her colors, but the moon and the ocean were vital to their longevity. 

 

Rey was young by her species standards, but she had been in the ocean for nearly one hundred years without being seen by the humans. She had been completely alone for half of it.

 

In the cold parts of the ocean where she had lived, mermaids or sirens were rare, their families preferred warmer climates and only solitary creatures remained. Rey had been one of them. Her blood ran cold and she preferred the quiet, only breaking the surface every decade to greet the moon at least once.

 

That was how she had been captured.

 

It was an accident really, she had pulled herself onto a slow iceberg and stretched her tail on the ice. Her scales glimmered in the moonlight and her jewelry sparkled like the stars above. She closed her hazel eyes and dug her fingers into the ice.

 

Rey woke to nets and harpoons flung on her body, she had managed to fall into the water but a net was tangled around her tail, dragging her against the boat and hitting her head. She came to wrapped in nets, surrounded by dead fish and soft ice, her wrists bound behind her body. There were no openings in her cage, she could feel the ocean moving around her but she had no way to reach it.

 

It had been a difficult journey, color draining from her the longer she was kept out of water, but the ice prevented her from trying to split her fin into legs. Rey had never done it before and she had no idea how to walk, but it was worth a try.

 

The nets had been dragged up and filthy humans stood and stared at her, poking at her skin and fins. She was moved from ship to ship, dumped into tiny tanks with locked bars, given dead fish and no fresh water to help. By the time she reached her final destination her skin was sallow, color gone from her hair, and she didn’t put up a fight when they dumped her into a tank.

 

She sank to the bottom into gritty sand, salt water pulsing through her gills, and Rey looked around. Two glass walls revealed an open space, so unlike anything she had ever seen before, humans in white and black peering inside.

 

There were still no openings to the sky, she only told time by when the lights turned off. She scratched at the fake ocean background, the water was too warm and the fish always came to her dead. They would be laced with something that made her sleepy and sometimes she would wake on their cold metal tables, struggling would only lead to them stabbing her with sharp objects.

 

Rey always fought, no matter what, it wasn’t in her nature to give up or to let a larger predator get the best of her. 

 

But there was only so much she could do in a tank, without the moon, fresh fish, or the iciness of the sea. 

 

One day a small fish was tossed into her tank, wriggling and alive. She grabbed it and ate it ferociously, blood under her pale nails and tongue relishing the taste of the meat. She could see another one being dangled near the top of the tank and she swam up, head breaking the surface. 

 

A dark human wearing the blue clothing of the workers looked down at her, eyes wide and mouth open in shock. She bared her sharp bloody teeth and he flinched, dropping the fish. Rey grabbed it and feasted, watching as he reached for more. 

 

“Do you like it?”

 

Rey didn’t know how to speak to the humans and she tilted her head at him, blood trickling down her chin. Finn didn’t know what he was doing and he stumbled, “You don’t understand me, do you? Why would you it’s not like they’re speaking English at the bottom of the ocean.”

 

He knew a little sign language, so with one hand he shook the fish and the other he moved into the sign. Finn dropped it directly into her hand and she caught it, staring at his hand. He pointed to the fish and kept moving it until she did the same. She repeated the movement and he held another fish up, putting it back when she stopped, her eyes widened in understanding. 

 

So it went for weeks, he managed to spell his name to her and she giggled, pointing to her fins. When he said her name out loud, tears leaked down her face. It hadn’t been spoken aloud since she was a child, her mother whispering it before dissolving into foam. 

 

It didn’t go without notice either, the other humans didn’t know what she was signing but they recognized it, pulling Finn in front of her tank. He was promoted to her sole handler, once she began pounding on the glass when they tried to drag him away.

 

Through Finn, her water was cooled and fresh fish came every day. Shiny jewelry decorated her skin once again, sea glass scattered in her sand. Finn told her most of it were gifts from the visitors who peered into her tank every day, humans of every size and color. Rey would follow humans who wore beautiful jewelry around her tank, hazel eyes gleaming with greed. 

 

In the beginning she never interacted with the visitors, no matter how much they banged on her tank she would tuck herself into the corner or into her cave, filled with soft gel rocks. Now she would press her hands to the glass to delight the little ones, and the looks on the faces who signed ASL when she moved her hands to speak with them made her captivity a little bearable. 

 

But there were those visitors who jeered at her, making what she knew to understand to be obscene gestures, or the strange ones who clutched crosses in their hands. Finn explained to her that the existence of mermaids was testing the faith of people around the world, whether of there being gods who created her or proof of the end of the world. 

 

It was rather funny, they had been there for centuries. They were dying out, apparently due to many being captured, females but never males. Finn asked her how mermaids were created and she knew it varied by type, some eggs were fertilized inside the body and some outside. Some gave birth like humans.

 

Rey knew she had hatched from an egg in her mother’s arms and watched as Finn wrote down her response, he signed to her asking about males. She shook her head, she didn’t even know who her father was, if she had one. 

 

An thin old man would sometimes stand outside her tank, long after the lights had gone out and only her green tank lights glowed. His eyes were cold and his face looked as though he had never smiled, a cane tapped against her glass. Finn told her he owned the facility she was in, he was anxious for more of her. 

 

One day Finn brought a new man, he wore the same clothing but it was ill-fitting. He signed that this was Poe, a friend who also signed. Poe was so excited that his hands shook as they conversed, his eyes darting to her tail. 

 

He asked her if she was happy, in the tank. 

 

Her eyes grew hard and she dipped beneath the surface, how could they think she wanted to be in the cage? Rey sank to the sand and picked up sea glass, running her fingers over the smoothness. Her attention went back up to the top of the tank, hands splashing in and out. She rushed back to the top, startling Poe who was on his knees. 

 

He shouted but recovered, “Rey, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t want to be in there either.”

 

Finn huddled close to Poe, covering his hands as Poe signed, “We’re working to get you out, back to the ocean. We know you don’t belong here, that you don’t belong to anyone.”

 

For the first time in what felt like months, hope swelled in her chest. She trusted Finn but she didn’t trust any of the other earthbounders. If she could only get out of tank, turn her tail to legs, she might get away herself. She could feel the ocean, it wasn’t very far away. 

 

Poe didn’t return for a long time and Finn seemed stiff, his eyes shifty towards all the other workers. Finn told her someone found out Poe had snuck in, security was tighter and Finn was watched constantly. Hope died in her heart, certain she was trapped forever. 

 

That night the old man, Snoke, appeared again. Only he wasn’t alone, a man larger than any of the other humans she had seen stood next to him. Snoke scared her, his eyes always stayed on her tail and her abdomen, she was certain he was eager for her to lay an egg. 

 

Snoke spoke with the man and Rey couldn’t hear them, let alone understand them. Snoke shuffled off but the large man remained, his brown eyes fixed on her. 

 

If he were a merman she’d have no trouble laying an egg. 

 

Rey swam out of her cave and floated near him, her hands pressed against the glass. Most humans stared at her tail or her jewelry, avoiding her bare chest that she refused to keep bound. He looked at her eyes and pressed his hands against the glass to mirror her, “Your eyes never changed, neither did your tail, why is that?”

 

The mermaid tilted her head at him, her hair moving slowly while her tail lazily flicked around. He had avoided coming here, knowing that seeing her would make him impatient. And he did, Ben wanted to smash the glass and cradle her in his arms. Other mermaids kept compelling humans to help them escape, but this one never did, the one called Rey.

 

Most of the other mermaids were found in warm bodies of water, but she was found in the middle of the Northern Atlantic, sleeping on an iceberg. None of them spoke and all were vicious, not the docile creatures of ancient tales. Rey, while just as vicious, had an attachment to her handler, however, and he had managed to communicate with her. That was why so many eyes were on Snoke’s facility, a public aquarium and private lab. 

 

Ben’s mother ran several non-profit rescues and had been advocating for the mermaids to be released, she managed it for a few but more and more were captured every day and there was no precedent or laws protecting them. Ben had been Snoke’s assistant for years but he was uneasy with how the mermaids were treated and he finally answered his mother’s phone calls. 

 

“You can’t condone what he’s doing.”

 

“I don’t Mother.”

 

Leia sounded exasperated over the phone, “Then what are you doing?”

 

“I...I’m not sure.”

 

He met with his mother and his uncle, crowded into his uncle’s tiny living room covered in seashells and sea glass. They wanted to show him something and so they went onto Luke’s boat, driving out deep into the water until the shore was barely visible and no one was around for miles. Luke took off his shirt and pants then jumped into the water, Ben yelling as he did. He was underwater for far too long but Leia didn’t seem concerned. 

 

Then Ben saw the glimmer of the blue tail, large and attached to his uncle. 

 

He couldn’t speak as Luke pulled himself onto the edge of the boat, Leia assisting him. His tail dipped in the water as Leia showed Ben a picture of his grandfather. 

 

“We didn’t know for a long time where Anakin came from, there were no birth records and no evidence he existed until he met Padme. Not out of the question for the time but he wasn’t on any census, and you know when we found out about our birth parents we wanted to know all we could. Eventually Ben Kenobi told us, he raised Luke knowing our father came from the sea.”

 

Ben had no words, his grandfather had been a merman and no one bothered to tell him until then?

 

“We had no way to know if it would be passed on, until Luke nearly drowned and instead grew a tail to survive. There was no proof either, the few pictures we have show them living far away from any body of water and we aren’t entirely sure why.”

 

He reached down and touched the scales, slimey and blue. Luke crinkled his eyes, “It doesn’t hurt Ben.”

 

“So what, we’re all mermaids?”

 

Leia hesitated, “Sort of, will you let me finish young man?”

 

Luke spoke, “Always so impatient.”

 

“When we found out about our parents, we found Padme’s grave but not Anakins. We never found a death date for him, but Ben Kenobi said he was so distraught when our mother died that he returned to the sea and turned into foam.”

 

His eyes were just continuously wide now, hardly blinking. 

 

“So, can you grow a tail too? Can I?”

 

“It’s not that simple. Luke has learned how to do it, I’ve only done it a handful of times and I was much younger then. You’ve been in the ocean many times and you’ve never sprouted a tail, it’s possible the more humans in the family tree the less scales there are. Your father certainly isn’t a mermaid.”

 

“He’d sure like to be, does he know?”

 

Her eyes grew a little distant, his parents were separated but never divorced. Around his teenage years his parents fighting grew worse, “Did he find out? Is that why he has stayed away for so long? Disgusted by his fish family?”

 

“No Ben, he wasn’t happy that we kept the secret from him. He loves us.”

 

“Certainly knows how to show it. When’s the last time you saw him?”

 

“That’s not what we’re discussing-”

 

Ben shouted, “I think it all is important, considering we’re fucking fish and you keep talking like any of this is supposed to make sense!”

 

Luke grabbed Ben’s arm and forced him to look into his clear blue eyes, which Ben noticed matched the sea. “Now is not the time to get angry, we have something more important than us going on. Mermaids are being captured everywhere and humans are getting more desperate to breed them.”

 

Leia sat on the edge of the boat, “Snoke knew about Anakin, we aren’t sure how he found out but he did. He doesn’t know Anakin is your grandfather, we think anyways. But the mermaid he has right now, the one called Rey? She’s his best chance at figuring out how to breed them and if he does, he controls the research and the attraction. According to reports from the inside, Rey is matured enough to procreate and he’s going to do whatever he can, use whatever he can to get her to breed.”

 

Ben felt sick to his stomach, “You don’t think he’d...try to use human DNA?”

 

“I think he’s capable of anything and it obviously will work, we’re testament to that. So, will you help or not?”

 

Which brought him back to Rey herself, her hands tiny compared to his. If he jumped in the tank would she let him drown? Would he sprout a tail? He smiled at her and she grinned back, she signed at him but he only understood a little. Enough to know she was saying hello. 

 

Finn had taught him a little bit of what she understood and he clumsily signed back, his name spelled out. Rey signed back and stared at his necklace, his mother gave it to him on the boat saying it belonged to Padme. Her wedding ring was a deep ocean pearl, imperfect and blue, and hung on a silver chain. 

 

Rey kept her eyes on the necklace, it would look so pretty on her finger. It looked too real, like the ones she scavenged in shallower waters. Humans preferred the pearls in a perfect sphere but the raw uneven gem was beautiful. The man, Ben, his eyes flashed like the pearl and her mouth turned into an oh. 

 

He was like her. 

 

* * *

 

She didn’t know whether or not to tell Finn. He was tense as it was and she still didn’t understand humans and their odd emotions. Finn never looked at her skin, blushed when she swam by but had no problem touching her arms if he could. She had seen humans ‘hug’ as Finn called it, but mermaids never pressed skin against skin, at least that was what her mother had imprinted into her mind. 

 

The man returned every night, peering into the tank. Sometimes with Snoke, sometimes not. Ben watched her swim, never averting his eyes, enraptured as she went all around the tank. He didn’t look disgusted with her when she ate either, she ripped into the fish to eat, other humans looked queasy when she ate. 

 

He wasn’t sure how to get to the top of her tank without notice, Snoke was already suspicious of him but he ensured his boss he had just never seen a mermaid, he wanted to study her. Leia said they might be able to speak with her underwater, other mermaids who were captured together had been observed to speak underwater but never above. Their speech was compared to whales, dolphins, any sea creatures and while similarities were found, they were unable to understand it. 

 

Finn came to her one morning and knelt down, telling her someone would enter her tank today. A diver would jump in and attempt to perform tricks with her, Rey bared her teeth, sharp and harsh. 

 

One came in, a man who clearly looked nervous and she swam around him. He had a ball and a hoop with him, but she wasn’t an act for their amusement. They couldn’t force her.

 

Her nails and teeth were sharp enough to rip through the diving suit, blood pooling in the water and tinged pink. He was dragged out and Rey was denied food that night, Finn didn’t bring her fish the next morning and she fell asleep after eating. 

 

She woke strapped to a table, arms and tail heavy. Her jewelry had been removed and her hands were held up, humans filing down her nails. She ran her tongue over her still sharp teeth and out of the corner of her eye she saw Ben. 

 

He argued with Snoke and the employees, they couldn’t take away her only means of protecting herself. Snoke leveled his cold eyes at him, “The creature must learn to follow my rules.”

 

“He invaded her territory.”

 

“We don’t know that.”

 

“Other facilities have shown that mermaids are territorial, even in their new environments.”

 

Snoke tilted his head, “And other facilities simply chopped off their fingertips in punishment. This is kindness.”

 

“At least leave her teeth alone, she won’t be able to eat the same way and if that’s affected then her whole system may change. Her diet could affect how she produces eggs.”

 

His boss looked at Ben with suspicion, “I’d almost think you cared for this animal.”

 

Ben was glad for the doctor’s mask and schooled his eyes, “I merely want to ensure a natural process, we don’t even know how she would give birth.”

 

Rey couldn’t understand anything that was being said but her eyes focused on Ben, his voice deeper than all the others. It was pretty and probably could be heard for miles over or under water. Snoke approached her and she hissed, he touched her cheek and she had never felt anything so dry. His nails scratched against her skin and she wished she could move her head, bite his finger off. 

 

“Fine then Ren, the creature will keep her teeth. For now.”

 

* * *

 

She kept touching her nails, blunt and unusable. Finn finally returned, he asked what they did to her. Rey wasn’t entirely sure what they had done beyond filing her nails, but she gestured to the holes in her arm. Finn gently touched them and explained to her about needles, drugs, all terms she wasn’t entirely understanding of. 

 

He signed, “They may have given you vaccines or something to help, they may have injected you with hormones.”

 

Rey looked at him with confusion, he continued, “It’s something to induce fertility, have you ever had a baby?”

 

She shook her head, she had never produced an egg or given birth. The humans were desperate for it, but she couldn’t give them what they wanted.

 

“Rey they might...artificially inseminate you. They could force you to have a baby.”

 

Rey dipped back down beneath the water, humans were confusing creatures. Some were kind, some were cruel. At least in the ocean fish didn’t have hidden motives, all the other creatures would do is try to eat you, not try to force a continuation of her species. She swam into her cave and nestled into the soft gel rocks, Rey placed a hand over her abdomen, rubbing over the empty torso. 

 

She wanted an egg, one to coo over and watch as it hatched, maybe a pair of matching hazel eyes. Rey wanted to swim with her baby, show her where the best fish swam and the prettiest pearls grew. 

 

She wasn’t ignorant however, she knew she needed a merman. So she never let her fantasies grow out of control. Rey had barely seen any of her kind as it was, mermen even rarer. 

 

It would be disgusting, letting the humans inject her, to force a baby. But a part of her wanted to let them, to finally hold someone who would love her and never leave her. 

 

A mermaid couldn’t weep, but Rey’s eyes burned with pain and she wailed, unheard by any outside the tank. 

* * *

 

Finn looked at his phone, the time read after midnight, and he looked around before dashing to the fire exit. He had managed to get it switched off by a sympathetic security guard, Finn let Poe inside and they raced to a work computer. 

 

They logged onto the network and Poe typed quickly, getting through firewalls and passwords until he got to the research. Facilities weren’t sharing their failures, certainly no successes, and he found parts of the research on Rey. 

 

Scientists had injected her with different kinds of hormonal therapy used on other aquatic mammals, but had observed no physical changes or indication they had done anything. Mermaid bodies used more energy than humans and even injecting higher doses had shown no obvious change. 

 

They didn’t bleed every month like humans did, though some had been observed to shed unfertilized eggs, all unusable. 

 

How they reproduced was a mystery, but Snoke was determined to be the first to own a mermaid egg. They were prepping her with a cocktail of human and aquatic mammal hormones, noticing her eat more and sleep more. He had decided that in three days they would make her sleep and inject human sperm into her reproductive system. 

 

It would be dangerous and downright reckless, mermaid autopsies and x-rays had shown no obvious way into their reproductive system. Snoke wanted them to cut their way in and directly inject, as it was their ‘best chance’.

 

Finn wanted to throw up at the notes, the pictures, and the planned surgery. 

 

“We don’t have time to get her out. Not before this date.”

 

Poe swatted at him, “Shut up, I’m trying to think.”

 

His fingers hovered over the screen, “She’s scheduled to be brought out of the tank an hour before the surgery. What’s the longest she’s ever been out of water?”

 

Finn shrugged, “Maybe two hours? They always make sure there’s a water mask over the gills on her mask so she can breath though.”

 

He tapped against the screen, “If we have a large enough window during the prepping stage...maybe we can get her out.”

 

“And if we can’t then they’re going to mutilate her and inject her with human sperm.”

 

“We’re all _very_ aware of what can happen.”

 

Finn forced him to swing around, “No, you don’t. I know you all want to help Rey but her life is on the line. They could kill her with the surgery and just move on to the next mermaid.”

 

Poe put his hands on Finn’s shoulders and shook him, “Freaking out isn’t going to help the situation. We know when we need to move her, now we need to get her ready to go. I’m going to prep a van with all the equipment, you have to make sure Rey knows what’s going on because once they knock her out, she can’t protect herself.”

 

Finn looked at the computer screen, the pictures taken of Rey when she was first captured with blue hair, the x-rays and notes. 

 

“Okay.”

 

* * *

 

Every night Ben walked past her tank as he left, Rey would swim next to him and every time he would stop to stare. This night, however, she was burying herself into the sand as if to hide herself. There wasn’t enough sand to do so and all she managed to do was disrupt it and make the water murky. 

 

She seemed agitated and didn’t look at him as she dug down, her tail flipping furiously and her teeth bared at some imaginary foe. He heard Snoke’s cane tapping down the hall and turned to look at his boss, “She’s been more agitated since we began injecting the hormones, a side effect that perhaps will prove fruitful.”

 

The surgery was only days away and Ben grew nauseous every time it was mentioned. He knew he was attached, felt some primal urge to protect the mermaid, and clenched his hands in an attempt to dispel some of his anger. 

 

“Will you be overseeing it sir?”

 

“Of course, I’ll follow her from the tank to the operating room and back.”

 

A trickle of dread went down his spine, they had planned to move her quickly when Finn and Poe got her out of the cage but if Snoke was watching the entire time it could end their rescue attempt.

 

“Of course sir.”

 

Snoke walked away and Ben turned back to the tank, Rey was swimming circles now and would drag her dull nails on the glass and concrete. Fish was dropped into her tank and she turned so quickly it was hard to watch, fish blood spreading and the fish disappearing, bones and all into Rey’s sharp mouth. 

 

She swam up and Ben hesitated before leaving, he had to talk to his mother though, and left quickly. 

 

Rey wasn’t sure why she felt so much anger, it had just grown over the day and she needed to get out of the tank. No matter what way. 

 

If Finn would leave the top part of the tank unlocked so she could get out on her own, she could be free. But Finn explained that eyes were always on her, cameras he called them, and they would notice her dragging herself out. 

 

She had never told Finn that she could split her tail and she wasn’t sure why, she trusted him enough to free her even though it hadn’t happened yet, but she held it back. Just in case she needed to ever free herself from him maybe. 

 

It was eat or be eaten in the ocean and she could never tell with the earthbounders, some kind some not. While Finn was the kindest she knew, she needed the extra advantage should she ever need it. 

 

He was dropping her fish in the tank and she ate viciously, her anger perhaps tied to her hunger and Finn knelt close to sign what their plan was. It seemed uncertain but it was all she had.

 

* * *

 

Leia and Luke were looking out over the ocean, the hum of the water felt within their hearts when Ben approached. He told them about Snoke and Luke frowned, “Maybe we need a bigger distraction.”

 

“It would have to be big to drag Snoke away from the surgery.”

 

Leia raised an eyebrow, “What about the appearance of a merman?”

 

* * *

 

Curtains were dragged in front of her tank, hiding her from the view of the visitors. Rey didn’t like it, they made her feel even more enclosed than she already was. Finn had begged her not to resist too much, just eat the fish and let the divers pull her out. 

 

Fishes were dropped around her and she nibbled on them, hating what she knew they would do to her and everything in her nature told her to fight, to draw blood until she was victorious. But there would be no victory if she did, only pain. 

 

But there was no familiar tiredness after she ate, but divers jumped in and grabbed her arms and she let herself appear limp. Maybe Finn had changed the fish. 

 

* * *

 

 

Ben watched as the divers went in, seeing them grab her arms and hook her into a net to pull her out. She wasn’t limp, the fish should have been untouched, and she was lifted from the tank. 

 

Snoke was nowhere to be found, the reports of the merman in the bay had him assembling a team to capture him in the race against other facilities. He left Hux to oversee the surgery but he was no problem, Gwen Phasma had assured him she could keep Hux occupied long enough for Rey to escape. 

 

He tugged at the scrubs he wore and made his way to the top floor, Rey was strapped to a hospital bed and pushed through the halls. 

 

The fire alarm went off and lights began to flash, the power to the building went off and emergency lights kicked on, throwing more shadows up than light. People began to yell and other poured into the hallway, confusion and movement forcing them to move away from the surgical rooms. 

 

Poe’s familiar hair peeked from underneath a security hat and the two of them grabbed hold of the bed and rammed it towards the elevator, ripping it from the others pushing it. They ran with the bed, Rey’s tail dragging on the floor and Finn slammed the fire doors shut behind them, locking the other workers. 

 

Rey sat up and looked around in confusion as Poe put a wheelchair next to her, it took all three men to maneuver her long body down. Rey signed to ask what was going on and Finn promised her they were leaving. 

 

They tucked a large blanket around her tail to hide it and forced a hospital gown over her head, a surgical mask and hair cap were put on and then they went to the elevator. 

 

It wasn’t working. 

 

Ben cursed and said, “We have to carry her down.”

 

Finn grew panicked, “I can’t, they’ll know it’s me as soon as we get down there.”

 

“Then Poe and I will go, you go down to the parking lot and get my car started.”

 

He ran ahead of them and the two men struggled to carry her down, no one else was in the stairway, most others using the other exits. At the first floor they hesitated at the crowd, too many families and people were rushing to get out along with several security guards. Poe said, “Can you carry her alone?”

 

“Probably.”

 

He let go of Rey and went out, waving his arms and security guards recognized him as being banned. He led them away from the stairwell and Ben struggled to get out. He was a strong man but she was so large and gangly out of water. She was trying to tell him something but he had no time to try to understand and they managed to get outside. 

 

His car was waiting, Finn held the back door open and they dropped her in unceremoniously, Finn promised he would see her again before slamming the car shut and Ben drove off as quickly as he could.

 

The whole ordeal was overwhelming, Rey had never seen so many people or heard so many sounds. It was so loud outside of water and she wished she could walk, or run on her own. But being cradled in Ben’s arms wasn’t the worst feeling, even if he was obviously struggling to carry her. 

 

In the moving car her eyes were wide as she looked at the buildings, cars, and people. She struggled to sit up but Ben begged her to lay down, pushing on her shoulder to make her. 

 

The blanket was suffocating as was the apparatus around her neck, filled with water allowing her to breathe. She tugged it off and rubbed the blanket, drying her scales. She wasn’t sure how it would work, only that it would hurt.

 

Something changed in her, her tail began to burn and her mouth opened in a soundless cry. Ben was focused on avoiding traffic and getting to the boat, but he felt her grab his seat and he looked back to see her face scrunched with pain. 

 

“Rey? What’s wrong?”

 

She couldn’t speak if she wanted to and he couldn’t see beneath the blanket, but the burning pain as her tail split had her crying out. Ben was growing panicked and as soon as he was close enough to the boat he got out and threw the door open. 

 

Rey was still contorted in pain and he yanked the blanket off, revealing bloody legs. He stopped in shock, a part of him not able to comprehend what was happening. Rey reached a hand up to him and in a soft breaking voice, “Please.”

 

Her head fell to the seat and her hand went limp.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love feedback!
> 
> find me on twitter @starsinourblood


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